Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 16:50:15 -1000 Subject: [ffml] [MW] The Search Goes On From: Chaos trudged through the thick mud as the rain poured down. It had been over a week now since he, Lorak, and Seph had left Bacca's doomed army. No one had been willing to come, and all the three had been able to think about was their poor lives. Lorak and Seph had taken cover in a nearby cave, but Chaos had opted to move on and hopefully find some better shelter, or even a shop to buy supplies. They were running low. Chaos finally climbed up the mountain to the dark, cramped, cold cave that his teammates were waiting for him at. "Any luck?" asked Lorinan twirling a silver-colored reflective sphere about the size of his hand. "Nothing," Chaos answered tossing his sheathed sword to the side. "How's he doing?" "He's learning well," Lorak answered, looking to Seph who was in the corner meditating. "He was born to do this. He's a fast learner." "As I can see." Chaos sat down near a fire Lorak had started with his magic and took off his cape. He put his hands over the fire, warming them up. "Who's next on the list." "Jaana and Sephiroth are close by," answered Lorak. "I can feal their power." He gave the sphere one last twirl, and it grew large reflecting an image of Jaana and Sephiroth comnig out of a portal and meeting up with Reis Weapon. "They're in trouble," Chaos said. "But they can handle themselves. What of the Dark Lord?" "The Dark Lord is missing," Lorak said, reducing the globe again. "He's alive, which saves us from trouble, but his powers are conflicting with ours so we cannot see him." "We'll have to find him the old-fashioned way," Chaos added. "And of figuring out who the last 3 are?" "I still don't know that," said Lorak. "But we can only find one until we kill The Dark Moogle." "Then he must die," said Chaos. "I need my army back. It's the-ugh!" Chaos suddenly started to breath really hard. He was struggling not to scream. "Chaos!" Lorak jumped up and shot a beam of light into Chaos. Whatever was happening stopped. "What's wrong?" "Don't you feal it?" Chaos asked. "The Dark Moogle is on the move." "Oh no..." "No, it's a good thing." "What?" "Rest well... in the days to come, I will retrieve my army!" The morning came to early, but the after-rain smell was always a scent treasured by most people... except these three. They didn't care. All that mattered was the mission, and time was running out. In the next few weeks, every last new Materia Warrior must be found, and the Dark Moogle killed otherwise... there would be pain... lots of pain. Chaos buckled his cape down and connected his sword to his belt. "Time to go." "Yes," Lorak added. "Jaana is only a day's walk, if she doesn't go in the opposite direction. And if she comes to us, only a half a day." "So this is another warrior? One of us?" Seph looked puzzled. "Yeah, Seph. Like you, we just discovered Jaana, Sephiroth, and Dark Lord," Lorak answered. "But we need to find 3 more after those three. It'll only make 6 of us, and the balance of Earth depends on having all 9." Chaos looked over. "Excluding the Dark Moogle." "I see," Seph said. "Stop," Lorkak suddenly stopped. "What is that I'm feeling now?" asked Seph. "Draw your weapon." Chaos unsheathed his sword. "You're about to have a run-in with the first 3 Moon Hunters." To be continued... Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 13:14:02 -1000 Subject: [ffml] [MW] The Moon Hunters From: "Lorak!" yelled Chaos, dodging out of the way of a throwing star pulsing with energy. "Get Seph out of here, I'll hold them off!" "No!" Lorak yelled back from 20 yards away. "Better to beat as many as we can, if not all of them right now." Lorak raised his ceptor into the air. A Tiger slowly faded in from nothingness, particularily big. It shot a raging fireball at the oncoming villians. Virgil, Nightal, and Golgyus stood in the clearing, one of them with his two Ragnaroks drawn, another shooting fireballs, and another projecting a force field around them that deflected the blast from the tiger. "What should I do?" asked Seph. "Protect yourself." Chaos, answered back, drawing his Chaos Blade, and charging it with energy. "What?" Seph was puzzled. "But... look at them! We can take them! It's a ninja, a wizard, and a knight!" "Do NOT let your guard down, Seph," Lorak demanded, keeping his eyes on the attackers. "They are the greatest hunters and assasins in the land. They killed the original Materia Warriors, before most of them were revived by Mog." "Okay, if you say so." Seph drew his Masamune. "So now what, we attack?" "No," Chaos answered, still looking. "We wait. Moon Hunters always make the first move." "Why? Why don';t we just clobber them?" "Because Materia Warriors don't kill unless they need too. It sucks, but that's who we are." "You have been angering the master," Virgil, the tall muscular knight said, holding his two Ragnaroks high, with two Paladin Shields strapped to his wrists. "We've been ordered to do away with you... for good." "You can't!" Lorak said. "You know what it'll do to Earth if we aren;t alive." "It doesn't matter," Nightal, answered, rising her ceptor up. "We've been giving safety on Olympia." "What?" Chaos yelled. "My planet?!? How... how did the Dark Moogle it?" "Don;'t ask me," Nightal answered. "He just has it," Golgyus said. "But don't worry, you'll soon be at piece." Virgil ran at Lorak, as a blast of fluorescent pink energy hit him in the side. Chaos materialized in front of him, and the clashed swords. Chaos had only one, but his other hand was charged with a ball of energy. He swung for Virgil, Virgil trapping Chaos' sword inbetween his two. Chaos released the ball of energy, and Virgil flew back into a tree. Nightal through a stream of water at Lorak from her ceptor. Lorak's quick senses saw it coming, and he shot out a stream of light from his ceptor. Suddenly a fireball hit him in the chast and he was knocked back. "Never forget to use your other hand," Nightal said, blasting another stream of water infused with energy at Lorak. Lorak rolled, drawing his ceptor again, and countering with a blast of energy the knocked Nightal down. "You could use some work on your reflexes, pupil." "Old man," Nightal said, flipping herself to her feet. "You taught me nothing! Not as much as the Dark Moogle did." Their energy collided again, locking themselves into place. Seph swung at Golgyus' head, but Golgyus raised his Murasame to clash with Seph's. As the two locked their swords, Golgyus punched Seph in the ribs, then kicked him knocking him into a tree. Seph drew a throwing star and darted it at Golgyus, but the ninja was too fast as he leaped into the air bringing his foot down on Seph's head. Golgyus swung for Seph's exposed kneck with his Murasame. Seph rolled in the nick of time, grabbing his Masamune again, and leaping to his feet where he met Golgyus again, their swords clashing. \Chaos swung at Virgil, who had been knocked against a tree. Virgil rolled under Chaos's sword and hit Chaos in the back with his shield, picking up his two dropped swords. Chaos tryed to swing around again to face Virgil, but his sword was caught in the bark of the tree. Instead he rolled down, as Virgil attacked the tree, and Chaos got to his knee and fired a ball of flame into Virgil's back. Virgil flew in the railing's of Chaos' sword, and dropped his Ragnaroks again. He let out an angered cry, as Chaos rolled down grabbing a Ragnarok, and standing to face Virgil. "That's the problem with having two heavy weapons, Virgil. You're weak hands can't hold them." "You bastard!" Virgil whiped some of his long hair from his face revealing a scar. "Time to take this back." He pointed at the indented cut, and raised his sword rushing for Chaos. Chaos brought his sword down to meet Virgil's. He grabbed at the Paladin Shield from Virgil's still armed forarm. Virgil lost his gripping at the force of the pull, and stumbled forward. Chaos put out his foot and Virgil fell to the leaves, face first, quickly rolling as Chaos almost dropped the sword into Virgil's chest. Virgil lepped up. "This scar will be the only thing to remember you by soon." "Yes," Chaos replied. "Because you're about to be alone in the depths of hell." They brough their swords together again, both locked in position, as they brought in close. Chaos looked to his swords railings, and saw it. He pulled the stilletto out of the handle of the Ragnarok with his unarmed hand, and rammed it into Virgil's rist. Virgil dropped the sword, but quickly picked it up again with his oppostite hand, knocking the stilletto away. "You little bastard!" Virgil said, raising his sword. "That' hurt!" "Not as much as this will." Chaos swung the sword until it was resting under his arm. Virgil rushed him, and Chaos jumped out of the way, revealing the other end of his sword which had come through the tree on the other side. Virgil stopped quickly almost hitting it, but before he could turn, Chaos drove his sword through Virgil's back. Virgil's eyes became wide, and he dropped his sword. Chaos removed the Ragnarok, and Virgil fell to his knees, spitting out a stream of blood. "Prick." Chaos kicked Virgil in the head, and that's when the life stopped flowing. He walked around to the other side of the tree, and drew his sword. Meanwhile, Lorak and Nightal had still had their energies flowing, colliding. Two beams they were each shooting now. Lorak shot his with all his force one last time before teleport three feet to the right of Nightal. Nightal, expecting this, teleported to the exact spot where she would be behind him, and threw her ceptor into Lorak's back. Lorak stumbled forward, but swung around to shoot a fireball into her stomach. His eyes flared with red energy, and the ground began to shake. Nightal leaped from her spot, just as the ground caved in and a burst of flames shot out. As she leaped, looking at Lorak, Lorak just smiled, and wave. A shadow, long and thick, came over Nightal's face, and when she looked up, a large Pine tree fell on her. Lorak walked to her spot, and saw a small puddle of blood seep out from beneath the tree. "Not as fancy as mine," Chaos said from behind Lorak. "But you are a wizard." "Sure," Lorak said back, laughing. "She wasn't worthy anyway." Seph jumped to a branch on the tree tree above him, and swung his legs up, to the branch beside that one. He was now about 3 feet above Goglyus' head. Golgyus, swung his sword, and Seph jump anoth branch high, evading it, and jump down foot first, onto Golgyus' head. Golyus fell to the ground, and Seph brought his Masamune down. Goldgyus rolled to his Murasame, but it was too late. Seph brought the Murasame onto Golgyus' head, and decapatated him. "Don't fuck with me," Seph said, smiling. "Good job!" said Chaos, clapping, leaning against a tree. "Good job indeed. You could swashbuckle with the rest of them." "So what's with these guys?" Seph asked. "They are a gang of warriors that were specifically brought into life to be hunters. Mainly, to hunt us. These particular ones were hired by The Dark Moogle." "So he must be close," Chaos added, sheathing his sword. "From fighting Virgil I was able to read his mind. Shadow is another Materia Warrior." "That scum?" Seph blurted. "What?" Lorak asked. "He killed a kid and a good moogle! And a black mage! Hung them!" "Maybe..." Chaos started. "But we need him. Let's go find Jaana and Sephiroth."